5 ms·

37signals to publish a new book

38 points by edu 18y ago

davidw 18y ago
I bet it'll be a good candidate for Squeezed Books if "Getting Real" was anything to go by.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
  - jgrahamc 18y ago
    Let me Google that for you: http://www.squeezedbooks.com/ http://www.squeezedbooks.com/
dawie 18y ago
The 37 Signals guys are brilliant! This is great marketing for their products, and they are getting paid to do it.
justindz 18y ago
Maybe they'll decide to unconform by foregoing the descriptive subtitle.
prakash 18y ago
Did anyone else find the irony in calling a book UnConform and getting it published by a regular publisher, when the previous book was called Getting Real; and David/37s were in large part responsible for technical books being published in various incremental beta stages?
- run4yourlives 18y ago
  Given that they were big fans of not publishing books the old fashioned way in the past, I'd be interested in understanding what made them change their minds.
  - dchest 18y ago
    Here, Even though we had tremendous success self-publishing Getting Real, we decided that this time we wanted to write a best seller. We want to sell hundreds of thousands or millions of copies. We couldn’t do this on our own, so we decided to work with a traditional publisher.
    - josefresco 18y ago
      AKA Greed. Not that I have a problem with it, but it flies in the face of the 'on-demand' self-publishing mantra that is preached daily on the web. And people wonder why pop stars continue to sign with the major labels.
      - jasonfried 18y ago
        It's likely we could have made more money self-publishing than going with a traditional publisher. We made north of $400K self-publishing our first book -- and that was in 2006. Today we have a much larger audience, roughly 4x the customer base, a blog that is read by roughly 7x more people, etc. So if this was purely about greed, self-publishing would be the right way down that road. We'd make an awful lot and get to keep every penny to ourselves. But we don't just want to reach the audience we can reach on our own. We want to reach a much broader audience. We want to reach every entrepreneur, small business owner, or small team member. We want to take our message mainstream. We believe working with a traditional publisher will give us a much better chance to reach these people. That's why we're working with a traditional publisher and that's why we believe we can sell hundreds of thousands or millions of copies of this book.
        prakash 18y ago
        Good luck! I am looking forward to your new book. I am also looking forward to when you guys do an analysis of Getting Real vs. UnConform in terms of self-publishing vs. traditional publisher.
        josefresco 18y ago
        I was not inferring that the money made would be direct. If a new music artist signs with a major record label, it isn't because of the great % they are offering, it's the large exposure, which results in money down the road (from concerts, their 'second' deal etc.) Same with your book deal. Making money isn't bad, I just feel it's a change in strategy from a company all about 'getting real'. We (as hackers) all 'rage against the machine' when we're young and poor, but once we all have some success and wisdom most take the opportunity presented by 'the man'. Maybe I'm naive in thinking 37signals was different.
tdavis 18y ago
This book will fail because Godin already has the market on made up words cornered.
antidaily 18y ago
I'm pretty familiar with their general messaging and way of doing things - I wonder if the book we'll offer anything new. I abandoned "Getting Real" after coming across countless points recycled from their blog.
- jonny_noog 18y ago
  My understanding was that essentially the entire "Getting Real" book was compiled from posts off their blog. This was no secret, and an easy to find out fact before deciding to buy the book or not.
jonursenbach 18y ago
Awesome! Another book that I'm not going to read.
axod 18y ago
Is it just me, or do we hear more from 37signals about "How to do it", than about their products?
- jasonfried 18y ago
  What do you want to know?
  - axod 18y ago
    Some cool stories about technology, scaling, performance, building products, improving products, new features, cool hacks, etc would be what I would find interesting. It just seems that a lot of the "business advice" is a bit nothingy - Not just 37signals, but Seth Godin, etc. Often it seems like having a "life coach" who used to work at Hallmark telling you things you already know in a slightly sermonistic way.
    - jasonfried 18y ago
      We share this stuff on our blog almost every day. Keep an eye on Signal vs. Noise (http://www.37signals.com/svn http://www.37signals.com/svn) and the Product Blog (http://productblog.37signals.com http://productblog.37signals.com) and you'll see all sorts of posts about building products, performance, improving, new features, tips and tricks, case studies, etc.
  - bootload 18y ago
    "... What do you want to know? ..." Is the book being pitched as a 'business' book, an alternative way to tackle business? Or is this another tech-related book? I suspect the former as the article makes numerous hints to a popular rather than technical audience.
  - petercooper 18y ago
    Just an extra data point for you, but I would find some sort of chronological history of 37signals, the development process behind each product, the whole way things have come together, with useful tips and insights interspersed, an absolute must buy. As much as I like the general advice, I think a slightly more narrative piece would be an excellent read.
mattmaroon 18y ago
The byline should be "how to write a blog telling people how to startup, even though your startup has like 8 customers, until your blog is way more popular than your startup."
- GHFigs 18y ago
  It's more likely to be "how to work four days a week at your decade-old profitable company while still having people insist on referring to you as a startup".
iamdave 18y ago
Even though we had tremendous success self-publishing Getting Real, we decided that this time we wanted to write a best seller. Is preemptively saying "I'm going to write a best seller" ambitious, or arrogant? I think it's far more viable to say "We want to appeal to a larger audience and make a deeper impact" than saying "we want a book that's going to fly off the shelves", given the perception many people already have about a company that runs around touting their own experiences as the golden standard for how web startups 'should' be run. It'll probably be a good book, but I feel as if this will be recycled information haphazardly put together and marketed excessively. In any case: Good luck breaching the wall of physical publications of business advice.
- GHFigs 18y ago
  Read the sentence again. It is a justification of their choice as being a practical one, not a statement about the quality of the book. They're saying that while "Getting Real" is the 4th best seller on Lulu, that's kinda like the old joke about "What's better than winning a gold medal at the Special Olympics?" To even have a hope of reaching "real" best seller status requires the resources of a traditional publisher, so that's what they did. Whether they actually achieve that status is another question, one which they make no claims about. That's why the next sentence reads "We want to sell hundreds of thousands or millions of copies." not "We will sell hundreds of thousands or millions of copies."

38 points by edu 18y ago

davidw 18y ago

I bet it'll be a good candidate for Squeezed Books if "Getting Real" was anything to go by.

deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
- jgrahamc 18y ago
  Let me Google that for you: http://www.squeezedbooks.com/ http://www.squeezedbooks.com/

dawie 18y ago

The 37 Signals guys are brilliant! This is great marketing for their products, and they are getting paid to do it.

justindz 18y ago

Maybe they'll decide to unconform by foregoing the descriptive subtitle.

prakash 18y ago

Did anyone else find the irony in calling a book UnConform and getting it published by a regular publisher, when the previous book was called Getting Real; and David/37s were in large part responsible for technical books being published in various incremental beta stages?

run4yourlives 18y ago
Given that they were big fans of not publishing books the old fashioned way in the past, I'd be interested in understanding what made them change their minds.
- dchest 18y ago
  Here, Even though we had tremendous success self-publishing Getting Real, we decided that this time we wanted to write a best seller. We want to sell hundreds of thousands or millions of copies. We couldn’t do this on our own, so we decided to work with a traditional publisher.
  - josefresco 18y ago
    AKA Greed. Not that I have a problem with it, but it flies in the face of the 'on-demand' self-publishing mantra that is preached daily on the web. And people wonder why pop stars continue to sign with the major labels.
    - jasonfried 18y ago
      It's likely we could have made more money self-publishing than going with a traditional publisher. We made north of $400K self-publishing our first book -- and that was in 2006. Today we have a much larger audience, roughly 4x the customer base, a blog that is read by roughly 7x more people, etc. So if this was purely about greed, self-publishing would be the right way down that road. We'd make an awful lot and get to keep every penny to ourselves. But we don't just want to reach the audience we can reach on our own. We want to reach a much broader audience. We want to reach every entrepreneur, small business owner, or small team member. We want to take our message mainstream. We believe working with a traditional publisher will give us a much better chance to reach these people. That's why we're working with a traditional publisher and that's why we believe we can sell hundreds of thousands or millions of copies of this book.
      - prakash 18y ago
        Good luck! I am looking forward to your new book. I am also looking forward to when you guys do an analysis of Getting Real vs. UnConform in terms of self-publishing vs. traditional publisher.
      - josefresco 18y ago
        I was not inferring that the money made would be direct. If a new music artist signs with a major record label, it isn't because of the great % they are offering, it's the large exposure, which results in money down the road (from concerts, their 'second' deal etc.) Same with your book deal. Making money isn't bad, I just feel it's a change in strategy from a company all about 'getting real'. We (as hackers) all 'rage against the machine' when we're young and poor, but once we all have some success and wisdom most take the opportunity presented by 'the man'. Maybe I'm naive in thinking 37signals was different.

tdavis 18y ago

This book will fail because Godin already has the market on made up words cornered.

antidaily 18y ago

I'm pretty familiar with their general messaging and way of doing things - I wonder if the book we'll offer anything new. I abandoned "Getting Real" after coming across countless points recycled from their blog.

jonny_noog 18y ago
My understanding was that essentially the entire "Getting Real" book was compiled from posts off their blog. This was no secret, and an easy to find out fact before deciding to buy the book or not.

jonursenbach 18y ago

Awesome! Another book that I'm not going to read.

axod 18y ago

Is it just me, or do we hear more from 37signals about "How to do it", than about their products?

jasonfried 18y ago
What do you want to know?
- axod 18y ago
  Some cool stories about technology, scaling, performance, building products, improving products, new features, cool hacks, etc would be what I would find interesting. It just seems that a lot of the "business advice" is a bit nothingy - Not just 37signals, but Seth Godin, etc. Often it seems like having a "life coach" who used to work at Hallmark telling you things you already know in a slightly sermonistic way.
  - jasonfried 18y ago
    We share this stuff on our blog almost every day. Keep an eye on Signal vs. Noise (http://www.37signals.com/svn http://www.37signals.com/svn) and the Product Blog (http://productblog.37signals.com http://productblog.37signals.com) and you'll see all sorts of posts about building products, performance, improving, new features, tips and tricks, case studies, etc.
- bootload 18y ago
  "... What do you want to know? ..." Is the book being pitched as a 'business' book, an alternative way to tackle business? Or is this another tech-related book? I suspect the former as the article makes numerous hints to a popular rather than technical audience.
- petercooper 18y ago
  Just an extra data point for you, but I would find some sort of chronological history of 37signals, the development process behind each product, the whole way things have come together, with useful tips and insights interspersed, an absolute must buy. As much as I like the general advice, I think a slightly more narrative piece would be an excellent read.

mattmaroon 18y ago

The byline should be "how to write a blog telling people how to startup, even though your startup has like 8 customers, until your blog is way more popular than your startup."

GHFigs 18y ago
It's more likely to be "how to work four days a week at your decade-old profitable company while still having people insist on referring to you as a startup".

iamdave 18y ago

Even though we had tremendous success self-publishing Getting Real, we decided that this time we wanted to write a best seller. Is preemptively saying "I'm going to write a best seller" ambitious, or arrogant? I think it's far more viable to say "We want to appeal to a larger audience and make a deeper impact" than saying "we want a book that's going to fly off the shelves", given the perception many people already have about a company that runs around touting their own experiences as the golden standard for how web startups 'should' be run. It'll probably be a good book, but I feel as if this will be recycled information haphazardly put together and marketed excessively. In any case: Good luck breaching the wall of physical publications of business advice.

GHFigs 18y ago
Read the sentence again. It is a justification of their choice as being a practical one, not a statement about the quality of the book. They're saying that while "Getting Real" is the 4th best seller on Lulu, that's kinda like the old joke about "What's better than winning a gold medal at the Special Olympics?" To even have a hope of reaching "real" best seller status requires the resources of a traditional publisher, so that's what they did. Whether they actually achieve that status is another question, one which they make no claims about. That's why the next sentence reads "We want to sell hundreds of thousands or millions of copies." not "We will sell hundreds of thousands or millions of copies."